


A Friendly Smile and A Cat

by MadSinners



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, erlu is likely tho, gajevy is the only decided endgame ship atm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 06:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16057067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadSinners/pseuds/MadSinners
Summary: Lucy has been living in the Fairy Tail apartment complex for a couple years now, and life's been good; her best friend lives right down the hall, she's friendly with most of her neighbours, she's making a steady income, the landlord's granddaughter is the most gorgeous girl she's ever seen- but everything gets flipped upside down when the new mysterious neighbour appears in her home.Sure, he seems harmless, but as time goes on, Lucy has to wonder just what kind of life he really leads.





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> Extra info I didn't want to clutter the tags with:  
> Gajevy is endgame, although both characters only show up later.  
> Lucy is a lesbian.  
> Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy are siblings.  
> Gray, Lyon and Ultear are adopted siblings.  
> Erza is Makarov's adopted granddaughter.  
> Laxus is Makarov's biological grandson.  
> There is background Fraxus.  
> There is an ask blog for this fic; @ask-fairytail-apartmentau on Tumblr.  
> This was originally going to be a meme fic, but then I thought of actual plot. For the most part though, this will be light-hearted and filled with jokes.

Lucy Heartfilia slumped into her Writing Chair for procrastination and pulled out her manuscript. Time for a nice, long day of nothing but-

"Howdy."

Never mind. The pink-haired boy in her house was probably more important than writing right now.

She whipped her chair around to stare at this stranger. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?!" she demanded.

"I'm Natsu. I'm your new neighbour. I brought you Doritos." He held up the bag, which he was eating out of. Some gift.

"That is not an adequate explanation. Try again." 

"Are you allergic to cats?" He asked. She noticed his clothes were covered in fur. And... Feathers?

"No...?"

"Okay, sweet." A cat crawled out of his scarf. A whole, full-grown cat. 

She decided she must be losing her mind.

"... That's nice. This is my house. Can you leave? Like... Now? I suppose you know your way out." Why wasn't she screaming? Or forcing him out? She wasn't quite sure. But it's not like he was really doing anything at least. 

"Oh yeah, sure." Oh. Well that was easy. "Do you want the Doritos though?"

Who is this boy. Why is he so chill. What the hell is happening.

She hesitated. "What flavour?"

"Scorchin' Habanero." He handed her the bag. She looked in it. It was empty. He grinned at her like he'd just told the funniest joke in the world. His teeth were stained red.

"Quick question: are you real, or have I literally gone insane and hallucinated the most ridiculous possible scenario ever?"

He actually looked like he was thinking about it. "I'm pretty sure I'm real. I can pinch you if you want."

"That's for dreams." He pinched her anyway. "Ow- wait, I asked you to leave!"

"Oh, yeah. Okay, bye!"

Was... Was he going towards the window? Holy hell, he was. This kid was half hanging out her window when he paused. 

"I didn't catch your name."

She stared at him in vague horror and complete confusion. This was the third floor. "It's Lucy."

He smiled again. "Nice name. See you around, Lucy!" And then this weird kid, who had broken into her apartment, eaten the Doritos he had apparently brought as a gift, and had a cat in his scarf, dropped out of Lucy's window. 

It was definitely a weird thing to feel in this situation, but Lucy wanted to laugh. Natsu may be the weirdest person she'd ever met, and he may have broken into her house before she had even seen him before but he had a friendly smile and a cat. Those facts paired with his claim to have moved into the building was enough to make her vaguely trust him. A misplaced trust maybe, but hey. Fairy Tail Apartment Building was filled with weirdos already. What was one more?


	2. two

The next day, Lucy met up with Gray for their weekly brunch. 

Lucy had known Gray for as long as she could remember- literally. Her earliest memory was from when she was six and went out to play in the snow. She'd tripped and gotten stuck in a deep patch and next thing she knew some kid with dark hair and sharp eyes, dressed only in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, was pulling her out and yelling "are you alive" at her very loudly. Once she had confirmed that she was, in fact, alive, he introduced himself as Gray Fullbuster. Lucy had no recollection of how they'd gotten so close, but by the time she was twelve they were at the stage of treating each other's parents like their own. 

Nowadays, they didn't have any parents left. But they had each other, and they had Gray's older sister to help them when they needed her. 

Lucy and Gray liked their weekly brunch sessions. It was the perfect time to talk shit about people. They would regularly drag the entire building and everyone in the surrounding area over waffles and milkshakes, and it was usually the highlight of their week. Of course, it wasn't all shit talking. They'd discuss some nicer things too. 

"So," she paused to take a sip of her milkshake, "have you met the new neighbour?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Nope. Apparently no one's seen much of him. Not even the old man. Why, have you?"

"Yeah, he broke into my apartment."

Gray choked on his waffle. "He fucking what?"

"He just showed up yesterday and gave me an empty bag of Doritos. He has a cat."

"Why are you so calm about this?!"

She shrugged. "He's like 5'2 and has pink hair. He wasn't exactly threatening. And anyway, he left when I asked him to. Honestly, he seemed like a cute dork more than anything else."

"But- but he broke into your house."

"I should probably mention the security concern to gramps. But he has a nice smile. I trust him." She but into her waffle nonchalantly.

Gray could only sigh. "You know trusting so easily is gonna kill you someday?"

"God, I hope so."

"Hey, I'm meant to be the depressed bitch in this friendship! Stop stealing my brand!"

They dissolved into laughter. The dumb, pure kind where you just can't hold it in and you end up snorting and it just doesn't stop no matter how hard you try. Was this a random thing to laugh so hard at? Maybe. But that didn't stop them. 

When they managed to compose themselves again, they went right back to their usual conversation. 

"Your dumbassery aside, did you see Laxus while he was back?"

"Oh, yeah, I passed him in the hall a couple times." Lucy chewed thoughtfully. "His new haircut makes him look like a rat."

"Took the words right out of my mouth! And the dress that one girl in his group was wearing the day she left... God, even shorter than usual."

"Y'know, she would look really good in shorts. Or maybe a playsuit?" She mused. "But she just keeps wearing those tiny dresses."

Gray rolled his eyes. "And she claims to be a fashionista."

"Mm." She tossed down her fork. "This negativity is getting me down. Let's be positive for a bit. Did you see how Erza did her hair the other day?"

He seemed to immediately brighten up. "Yes! It looked so perfect on her. And her outfit?"

"It was adorable! The colour really brought out her eyes. She's so pretty," she sighed. 

"And Lucy's gayness for Erza returns. Whatever will she do? Actually tell her how she feels? Or add another romantic scene to her book that's already half filled with romance scenes inspired by these very same gay thoughts?" Gray teased. 

"Bold of you to assume it's only half," she retorted. 

* * *

Natsu was there again when she got home, except this time he was sitting on the windowsill with his back to her. She would've been concerned if his hair didn't make it blatantly obvious who it was. 

"Hi, Natsu." She put her bag down and hung up her coat.

He whirled around with a grin on his face. "Hey, can I come in? Kidding. I'm coming in anyway." He tumbled down onto the floor. Lucy sincerely hoped the cat wasn't in his scarf again. 

"Well, luckily for you, I was going to say yes anyway. Do you want some tea?" Lucy walked into the kitchen while twirling her hair up into a bun. 

"Uuummm." He rolled himself upright and put his legs in a basket. "Yeah, sure. No milk, shit ton of sugar."

One boiled kettle later, the two of them were sitting on Lucy's coach. Lucy blew on her tea to cool it. Natsu starting drinking without hesitation. 

"So. Apparently no one knows anything about you."

Natsu tilted his head. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I've only really spoken to you and this one other girl. She was nice, but not as nice as you. She didn't offer me tea."

"Like half the people here are girls, you're going to need to be more specific."

"She said her name was Levy. She had pretty, blue hair!" He downed the rest of his tea. Lucy's still wasn't cool enough to drink. 

"Oh, Levy! I haven't spoken to her in ages, we really need to catch up some time. Did you talk to her for long?"

"Hmm. Not really. Only a few minutes. She just wanted to let Happy."

Lucy tilted her head. 

"My cat," he clarified.

"Ah. Speaking of your cat, I'm guessing you didn't bring him today?"

Natsu shook his head. "He's at my brother's. He just got his own cat, so my sister's over there with Happy and Carla to try get him used to other cats."

"Oh, you have siblings?"

"Mhm! A big brother and a little sister."

Lucy couldn't wait to rub this new information in Gray's face. "What are they like?"

Before Natsu had a chance to respond, the voice of a young girl echoed faintly through the door. 

"Natsu! Where are you hiding this time? Come on, come out!"

Natsu's head shot up. "That's Wendy's voice. I gotta go. Thanks for the tea, Lucy!"

Lucy opened her mouth to answer him but, before she could, he had already leapt up and dashed out. As he went, Lucy realised he was wearing a skirt. 

She also realised that he looked good in a skirt. Really good. Probably better than she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's gonna be at least a few more chapters of just setting up all the characters, getting everyone introduced etc, before the plot fully kicks in


End file.
